What advanced settings (data, autoplay, NSFW, language) should you configure early?

Reddit's settings panel contains a number of preferences that significantly affect the quality and character of your experience, and many users leave them at default values without realizing the effect those defaults have. Configuring these settings early establishes a baseline that matches your actual needs. Data saver mode, available in the mobile app, reduces the bandwidth consumed by image and video loading by loading lower-resolution media and disabling automatic video playback. This is especially relevant on mobile data connections where high-quality video autoplay can consume gigabytes of data without the user noticing. On the web interface, similar savings come from disabling autoplay in the site's media preferences. Autoplay is enabled by default and is responsible for a significant portion of Reddit's battery and data footprint on mobile — disabling it changes passive scrolling from an audiovisual stream to a text-and-thumbnail browse that loads media only when intentionally clicked. NSFW content visibility is controlled at the account level through the safety settings page. By default, Reddit does not display content from NSFW-tagged communities or posts to logged-in users unless they have explicitly opted into adult content in their account settings. If you subscribe to NSFW communities or want search results to include NSFW posts, this setting must be manually enabled. Conversely, if you use Reddit in shared environments or prefer to exclude mature content entirely, verifying that this setting is disabled prevents unexpected content from appearing. Language and content localization settings affect which regional communities and trending content appear in your recommendations. Reddit has significantly expanded its non-English community base, and users who want recommendations specific to their language should set their preferred language explicitly in account preferences. This affects both the Explore and Popular feeds. Feed settings — the choice between a "Best," "Hot," "New," or "Top" default sort — are worth configuring to match your reading habits. "Best" uses Reddit's algorithm to surface highly engaged posts across your subscriptions; "New" shows raw chronological order, which is valuable for moderators or users who want to catch recent posts early. Choosing your default intentionally rather than accepting the algorithmic "Best" sort gives you more control over what you see first when you open the app or site.